The Importance of Empowering People to Make Change

The team is spending more time on feature development and less time fighting fires. The culture I'm trying to build is everyone has a voice, he says. "I didn't even know about that," one developer said of his lack of bug-spotting skills. 'Thanks for bringing that to my attention,' the boss responds.

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Brian Lagunas is a Microsoft MVP, a Microsoft Patterns & Practices Champion, leader of the Boise .Net Developers User Group (NETDUG), board member of Boise Code Camp, speaker, trainer, and Pluralsight author. He can be found speaking at a variety of developer events around the world. His talks always involve some form of markup (XAML or HTML), as well as how to build well-architected applications with Prism. In his spare time, he authors courses for Pluralsight, blogs, livestreams about various technologies, and manages the Prism Library. The easiest way to find Brian is on Twitter at @BrianLagunas.

Topics of Discussion:

[2:21] High points in Brian’s career that have shaped his way of thinking about software, including starting his career at a global infrastructure company construction company.

[5:22] The mentor that taught Brian about the importance of getting your foundation right.

[7:11] How today’s development mindset is different.

[8:40] How does Brian balance or reason those competing pressures from the outside?

[9:52] Delivering quality first and creating a long-term plan for the team.

[12:43] Fixing problems with the software versus working on new capabilities.

[15:56] Brian’s approach when he took the team over, and how he handled any resistance and pushback by showing his team firsthand better efficiency and productivity.

[16:26] How Brian measured actual progress.

[21:02] The value of having a subjective opinion.

[22:30] What quality controls does Brian put in place?

[25:42] The issue Brian and his team found.

[27:51] What kind of skills did Brian have to employ to make this level of testing possible?

[29:15] The importance of everyone being open to helping and learning from each other and helping out where they can.

[29:50] How Brian thinks about pull requests.

[32:14] Stay tuned for Brian’s thoughts on static analysis.

[33:41] The emotional side of things and how people feel about their work when they are focused more on development and spending less time fighting fires.

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